Australia's private medical practice industry had a total income of $7,241 million during 1994-95 according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The industry employed 106,134 persons, of whom 33,987 were medical practitioners.

Fee for medical service was the major source of industry income accounting for $6,562 million or 91 per cent of total income. This represented an average fee for medical service incomebefore deduction of expenses of $193,000 for each medical practitioner employed in medical businesses. Specialist medical businesses had an average fee for service income before deduction of expenses of $301,000 per practitioner and general practice businesses $125,0000 per practitioner.

The industry incurred expenses of $5,391 million, of which 56 per cent ($3,012 million) related to labour costs. After deducting expenses the industry recorded an operating profit before tax of $1,850 million for the year ended 30 June 1995 which represented an operating profit margin of 25.8 per cent.

There were 11,933 general practice medical businesses employing 54,657 persons of whom 20,825 (38 per cent) were medical practitioners. These general practice businesses generated total income of $2,836 million (39 per cent of the industry) and had an operating profit of $778 million, which represented an operating profit margin of 27.6 per cent.

By comparison there were 10,364 specialist medical businesses which employed 51,477 persons including 13,161 medical practitioners. These specialist medical businesses had a total income of $4,405million (61 per cent of the industry) which resulted in an operating profit before tax of $1,072 million. This equated to an operating profit margin of 24.6 per cent.

Small medical practices with one to two medical practitioners accounted for the majority (55 per cent) of employment in the industry. These practices generated 52 per cent ($3,427 million) of fee for medical service income but had the lowest operating profit margin of the size groupings of 24.4 per cent.

Of the 33,987 medical practitioners employed in the private medical practice industryat the end of June 1995, 19 per cent (6,309) worked in practices with total income of $100,000 or less while 16 per cent (5,300) worked in practices with total income of more than $1 million.